San Gabriel Mountains Cessna 182B N2569G 9/15/13

This blob of melted aluminum had one of the seatbelt mounts embedded in it.

The window frame from one of the cabin doors.

Speaker frame

The other main gear, this one looks in pretty good shape.

Tire and brake assembly.

Another view showing the disc brake caliper and pieces of the wheel pant.

The another side.

A piece from a seat frame.

The nose gear strut.

The remains of a navigation light.

Looking down as I continue up.

A part from the headset.

Saw this piece which turned out to be the firewall in a bush on a steep section. This is looking down on it.

Looking up at the firewall from below.

Had to climb up into the bush to get this photo showing a pair of rudder pedals.

Close up of the pedals.

Close up of another section of the firewall. This is as high as I climbed up the slope. Going to take a different path down to see if I missed anything on the way up.

One of the mounts for the fuel filler that would be on the top of each wing.

The other side of the same part.

Piece from one of the wheel pants.

Another view of the same piece.

Looking down, I noticed a piece up against a log which is in the right side of the photo.

The piece I spotted was a ten foot long section from one of the wings leading edge which was badly crushed from the impact.

Piece of electrical equipment.

A piece of the front landing gear fork.

The other half was nearby.

Looks like a part of the engine's intake air filter.

Another fuel filler, this one is attached to a piece of wing.

Same part turned over.

Close up showing the fuel cap.

Looking down on the large piece of wreckage that I spotted earlier as I was hiking up away from the engine. It's at the base of the dead tree.

Turned out to be most of the left wing with the flap and part of the aileron.

Closer view showing the flap.

What remains of the tip section. This was the lowest piece of wreckage on the slope, with the highest up about a hundred yards.

Off the slope and back on the trail. Happy to be off the steep slope, but not looking forward to going through the thorn bushes.

Couple of 30-06 casings. Must be from a deer hunter, did see a lot of deer tracks on this hike.

Past the killer bushes and on the easy part of the trail.

On the drive back out to the highway.

THE END

This information on the lost of three Civil Air Patrol crew members was provided by John Lopez Jr.

During the search for this missing airplane conducted by the Civil Air Patrol, a Cessna 182R (N9706X), crashed on 14 January 1995 killing all three CAP aircrew members. The sortie, which originated from the search base at Cable Airport, was only an hour into it's search when it impacted terrain at the 7700 foot level in a wooded saddle between Mt Baldy and Pine Mountain. The weather that day was marginal with obscured peaks and mountain tops, turbulence and significant downdrafts.

The three CAP members killed were assigned to the Reid-Hillview Squadron in San Jose, CA. They were Robert A. Leman, 48, a computer software engineer and commercial pilot from San Jose who had been a Patrol volunteer for 12 years; Brian Perkin, 39, a products planner for Novell Inc. and an eight-year Patrol volunteer from Santa Clara; and James C. Spadafore, 62, a two-year Patrol volunteer from San Jose, for whom no other occupation was given. Leman and Spadafore were both married with children.

The NTSB's findings for the cause of the crash was, "the pilot's loss of aircraft control and subsequent inadvertent stall/spin following an encounter with a localized mountain wave condition and turbulence while conducting a search mission in close proximity to mountainous terrain".

Within two years, two more members from the squadron would be killed in another crash while conducting SAR operations within the State of California.